JONES: Eskimos team up with FC Edmonton, Stingers, Prospects in ticket deal

On the surface it’s a not-all-that-significant Christmas stocking stuffer ticket promotional package that probably won’t put more than an extra couple thousand people in the pews for games next year.

Unless, that is, Edmonton sports fans fall in love with the spirit of the idea and the actual concept of the deal. Then it could turn out to be a blockbuster.

Four sports. Four games. And future considerations.

It’s Kim Manzo’s Christmas dream. But it’s actually a much bigger dream than that. Manzo loved the days when Ann Sather and Louise Campbell, the wives of the general managers of Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton Eskimos, co-chaired an annual Festival of Champions.

Manzo, who had a community background working with several soccer entities for 16 years, got a job in community relations and ticket sales with the Edmonton Stingers of the new Canadian Elite Basketball League and came up with the idea.

She decided to try to sell all four of Edmonton’s summer schedule professional sports teams on doing a Christmas ticket package together, with the aim of bringing the teams together into a relationship that might grow into bigger and better things, including a return of the festival.

“I was sitting the store that we set up at K-Days and I started to think about all four clubs,” she said of how the Edmonton Eskimos, FC Edmonton, Edmonton Prospects and the Stingers all contribute to the quality of life in the city.

“I was thinking how we shouldn’t be fighting against one another, we should be working with each other to help make Edmonton a better community,” she said.

“So I reached out to the Eskimos. They liked the idea. I then went to the other two teams and they said sure. I kind of got teary-eyed when it came together just like that.

“As they talked together they also talked about the idea, if this works out well working with each other, why not bring back the Festival of Champions. It’s nice to have a little dream that comes true.”

You’d wonder why the Eskimos would be interested in an association with three teams that are of a significantly secondary status in terms of history, stadium capacity, payroll, budget, number of employees, image, etc.

The Eskimos didn’t have a good season at the gate last year but still averaged an announced paid attendance average of 29,341 per game, and good crowds against Calgary and Saskatchewan of 40,000-plus would beat the total season attendance of FC Edmonton, the Prospects or the Stingers.

But Manzo’s phone call registered on responsive ears to new Eskimos president and CEO Chris Presson.

“When I was in New Haven running a hockey club we tried to put something like this together. Yale hockey was involved. The New Haven Ravens baseball team was involved. But we could never get it off the ground. So kudos to these guys for getting it off the ground because I would agree it’s the start of something bigger.

“We don’t look at these three teams as competition. That’s why we’re sitting at the table with them here today. We look at them as partners,” said the new boss of the 71-year-old community-owned team.

“And we look at this as a newly-formed partnership that we could develop to things beyond this. I believe the better these three teams do, the better we do. We’ll continue to look at things beyond this.”

So Monday, there sat Presson of the Eskimos, FC Edmonton owner Tom Fath, Prospects assistant general manager and head coach Jordan Blundell and Stingers president Brett Fraser at a media conference to unveil what they’ve titled The Ultimate Sports Fan Pass — one ticket to each of their 2020 season games for a combined total of $79 plus tax with a Dec. 23 expiry date.

But, again, the story is more the coming together as the ticket package they put together.

“We always said the reason we got into this was for the community and for the youth,” said Fath of he and brother Dave, who not only own the Canadian Premier League team but soccer academies for young men and women.

Blundell said this initiative and hopefully others to follow will come up with win-win concepts for both the clubs and the communities.

“This exposes all four sports to families and ultimately the lifeline for all of our programs is having kids interested. For us to be involved is a huge privilege. For this to happen in one community is special,” said Blundell.

“We’re the new kid on the block here establishing our brand and our partnerships, so we’re thrilled to be at this table working with these three groups,” said Stingers Fraser. “I think this is the start of something bigger as well. We think this is a really good entry point.”

Four sports. Four games. But future considerations is the key to the deal.

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